IMS Research Seminar: Benjamin Oebel

The presentation introduces a methodology to assess the health externalities of food consumption. Since different foods have distinct impacts on human health, consumption choices can indirectly cause higher public healthcare costs that are not borne by individuals but by society at large through rising insurance premiums. In addition, the presentation will explore a strategy to reduce such external costs by adjusting value-added tax rates on products according to their health and environmental impacts.

Benjamin Oebel is a research associate at the Nuremberg Institute of Technology and PhD candidate at the University of Greifswald. He investigates how food choices create hidden social costs and how policy can help make the food system more sustainable and equitable.